It is highly unlikely durin is going to do another war turn before he switches to the ten year turns, so the Recon armor is not exactly a priority at the moment.
We don't have many options for when we
can take the action. The only time when it'll
really be priority is when we're going to war and we've
never had three years forewarning before we had to go to war. Taking the action means preventing a possible cycle of "It's peace so not priority>It's war, no time to study>It's peace so not priority". Admittedly such a cycle fits the 40k setting well but we should still try to avoid it.
1. You're missing the point. We just lost a number of our Merchantmen during a time when our shipping is already insufficient. Midgard MUST operate on having a surplus so they can save up enough food for emergencies (at their current production, without trade they would enter starvation mode in 12 years - think about how long Niflheim has been blocked off by a Warp Storm, which could just as easily happen to Alfheim) but we've also lost a number of our shipping capacity in this war - as such, decreasing the amount of shipping Midgard needs so that we can use that capacity to instead send metal to Vanaheim is rather crucial. Food to Midgard takes a very large amount of shipping capacity, and we can lessen that. This is a case of putting the Trust's needs first.
What you're saying makes a great deal of sense but it's worth remembering we lost so many merchantmen because we didn't invest enough into our military. Establishing military security must always come first, especially in 40k. The odds of Midgard getting invaded are greater than the odds of it getting cut off by a warp storm. In this case, I'll admit it's better to focus on fixing the logistical situation due to everything it's connected to but for most matters where we have to pick between civil and military techs, we should go with the latter.
2. We wouldn't really deploy Vanquishers against the wildlife on any regular basis. They're too valuable for that.
There are two ways to argue against this.
1. If we're able to mass-produce Vanquishers (relative to what we could before, at least) and we're suffering badly against the wildlife, we should definitely use the Vanquishers regularly.
2. The Vanquishers are effective at extreme ranges and they need to practice against the wildlife so the crews are used to using them. Using them regularly is both safe and practical, even necessary.
Interesting. By the way how much damage would the Life Eater virus done to the planet?
It's Exterminatus grade weaponry. It consumes all life on a planet within hours (if even that long) and produces an extremely flammable gas which can then be ignited by an orbital laser, scorching the entire planet.
